WWII Profile - Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt

Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt

(1875-1953) 

The most senior German Army officer of World War II, Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt was born in Aschersleben in 1875. he served as a General Staff officer in the Great War. He commanded some of the largest armored campaigns in history, from the Ardennes attack in 1940 to the overall command in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. 

• Rundstedt commanded Army Group South in Poland in 1939. In 1940, he commanded Army Group A in the invasion of France. He was promoted to Field Marshal after the fall of France on July 19, 1940. 

• Rundstedt commanded Army Group South during Operation Barbarossa. Hitler sacked him on December 12, 1941 for a tactical withdrawal near Rostov. 

• He was appointed commander-in-chief of Army Group West in France in March 1942,. Hitler sacked him on July 2, 1944 for failing to stop the D-Day landings.  

• Rundstedt was reluctantly brought out of retirement one final time to command the Ardennes Offensive of December 1944. 

Excerpted from German Panzers in WWII (Order of Battle) by Chris Bishop. 
 

They Said It... - Flame Thrower Harry Parley on Omaha Beach

In the following account from War Stories of D-Day: Operation Overlord: June 6, 1944, flame thrower Harry Parley, a private first class with the 29th Division, 116th Regiment, 2nd Battalion, E Company, describes the chaos of stepping foot off the landing craft and into the hell that was Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.

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"As our boat touched sand and the ramp went down, I became a visitor to hell. Some boats on either side of us had been hit by artillery and heavy weapons. I was aware that some were burning and some were sinking. I can’t recall if there were cries from the wounded. I shut everything out and concentrated on following the men in front of me down the ramp and into the water. Ahead of me was a stretch of beach at least a couple of hundred yards deep. I read the actual yardage somewhere many years ago, but I no longer remember it.

"The air was thick with smoke and the roar of exploding shells. I stepped off the ramp into a deep, water-filled pocket in the sand, and went under completely. With no footing whatsoever, and with the weight on my back, I was unable to come up. I knew I was drowning, and made a futile attempt to unbuckle the flame thrower harness. Inadvertently, I had raised the firing arm, which is about three feet long, above my head. One of my team saw it, grabbed hold, and pulled me up out of the hole onto solid sand. Then slowly, half drowned, coughing water, and dragging my feet, I began walking toward the chaos ahead." 

Photo courtesy of National World War II Museum, from War Stories of D-Day: Operation Overlord: June 6, 1944 by Michael Green and James D. Brown.